A-mazing Teamwork
by Natascope
Summary: Harry asks for all the champions to work together before they enter maze during the final task of the Triwizard Tournament. Cedric agrees to help him. AU. OOC!Harry.
I do not own Harry Potter.

* * *

 **A/N: This is for Season IV of the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition, Practice Round**

 **Team/Position: Caerphilly Catapults, Chaser 1**

 **Base Prompt: Write an amazing story about amazingness.**

 **Optional Prompt: #01 - Do not use word amaze or any of its derivations.**

 **Optional Prompt: #02 - Song: Everything is Awesome**

 **Optional Prompt: #03 - Story takes place in a maze.**

 **The prompts were written as a joke while verifying a structure for my A/N for the competition. Afterwards, I couldn't help myself. This story is very much AU.**

 **Edit 2016-04-15: Fixed some grammatical issues**

* * *

Cedric stood outside the entrance to the maze nervously waiting for Ludo Bagman to start the competition. Somehow he had managed to make it this far in the competition, and was tied with Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, for first place. Just thinking about that did absolutely nothing for his nerves. Taking a couple of deep breaths, he attempted to calm himself down.

"You all know that I don't really care about winning this tournament, right?" Harry's voice broke into Cedric's consciousness, breaking his calming exercises. "In fact, what do all you say that we work together as a team? We enter the maze, wait for everyone to arrive, and get through it together."

Cedric turned to really look at the youngest competitor. Harry was showing absolutely no signs of nervousness. In fact, he seemed to be exuding some sort of blissful calm. The aura of it was practically visible against Cedric's own insecurities.

When no one had replied to Harry after a few moments, Cedric pulled himself together enough to ask, "Are you serious, Harry? What about the Galleons? Ya know, the prize?"

Harry shook his head. "Eh, don't really care. I care more about actually living through this competition than any amount of Galleons or glory. The way I see it, if we work together, I've got a better chance of living through this than I do going it alone."

"For someone that only cares about living through this, you're doing remarkably well…"

Harry cocked his head slightly to the side. "Thank you?"

Cedric looked back at the older competitors, weighing his options. Harry had helped him out during the first task. If he hadn't known ahead of time that he would be facing a dragon, he would probably be dead. However, he had already returned the favor, giving Harry a vital clue to determining the riddle inside the egg that they received. Still, having an additional wand, or wands, available during the maze would increase all of their chances of getting through without any problems—

His thoughts were interrupted by Krum. "I vill do this alone," he stated brusquely.

"I agree wiz Viktor. I will go zrough ze maze alone," Fleur commented. "Zough I zank you for ze offer, 'Arry."

Looking back at Harry, Cedric saw his face fall slightly before resolutely turning toward Cedric. With his thoughts racing, Cedric finally made his decision. "Well, Harry, if we work together it will still be a Hogwarts victory. Count me in."

A huge grin broke across Harry's face. "Awesome." Harry's grin shifted to a smirk before he continued, "I'm sure us working together will be ama—"

Cedric cut him off before he could finish. "No. No puns. You start on that and I _will_ leave you behind."

* * *

The third and final shrill of the whistle had long since sounded and faded. Cedric was surprised by two things: first, the two had barely run into anything; and second, the darkness and silence really made it feel like the maze walls were pressing in on you.

Well, saying there was silence was a bit of a stretch. When they had first started out, sure there was some silence. It would seem, though, that Harry liked to fill silence with noise. His humming—if you could call it that—probably wouldn't be so bad if it was a recognizable tune. Instead, he was just humming whatever came into his head without care for an overall theme. The last two times Cedric had asked him to stop, he had started right back up again less than a minute later. The silencing charm around Harry had fixed the noise, but now Cedric had to contend with the oppressive silence.

While he was weighing the pros and cons of lifting the charm, he was tackled to the side by Harry. The flame shooting past, directly where his head used to be, shocked him. Abashed, Cedric quietly lifted the charm.

"—have to step in and nearly get burned to a crisp. Thanks, Hagrid. Seriously, how's this worth a thousand Galleons?" Harry spat out at the monster standing in their path.

"Is that one of Hagrid's Blast-Ended Skrewts?" Cedric had heard other Hufflepuffs complaining about them ever since the year started. Apparently they were vicious—sorry, misunderstood—and had extremely durable shells. He was once again glad that he had decided to drop Care of Magical Creatures for his NEWT years.

"Ah, finally talking to me again? I tried to get your attention: yelling, waving, anything. You just kept walking straight for it."

"Let's deal with this thing first, then we can deal with each other. Deal?"

"Fine," Harry capitulated. "It's weak spot is its underbelly. If you blast it up, I'll hit it with a Reductor."

"Sounds good. I'll go on three. One. Two. Three." Cedric cast a spell to have the earth beneath the skrewt's feet launch it up, tilting it backwards slightly so that Harry could get a shot at the underbelly. At the top of its arc, Harry's Reductor hit it square in the belly. The result was an exploding skrewt.

"Merlin…" Cedric was stunned. He hadn't expected Harry to be able to put that much power behind his spell. Looking over at Harry, Cedric was prepared for a masterful aura, a commanding presence, or even a hard-eyed glare.

Instead, he saw a teenager covered in skrewt, holding a piece of shell away from himself with a disgusted look on his face. "Ick," was all Harry had to say for himself.

Cedric couldn't help it; he broke out laughing. Here he was, in a life or death game; being watched by three schools-worth of children, parents, and the Ministry of Magic; and working together with the Boy-Who-Lived. Then after an impressive feat of magic, all the boy had to say was "Ick." Harry turned toward him with a questioning look. However, seeing Cedric also covered in skrewt set the younger boy to laughing as well. Their laughter fed off of each other for nearly a minute before they both managed to calm down.

With a couple of quick _Evanesco_ spells, Cedric cleaned them both up. "Sorry 'bout before. Your humming was driving me mental. I put up a silencing charm and then got lost in thought. Kind of stupid, really. Without you I'd have been hit by that fire blast. Thanks."

A soft smile appeared on Harry's face. "Don't worry about it. It's why I wanted to work as a team." Harry turned to look down the path the skrewt had been blocking. "Onwards, to waffles!"

Cedric could only shake his head. "Waffles?"

* * *

"Thanks for solving that riddle, Cedric. It would have taken me ages to get the answer," Harry stated sincerely.

"Not a problem, Harry. That's why we're a great team," Cedric replied. Though, he had to admit, he was surprised that Harry had such a hard time with riddles, especially ones as easy as that had been.

As the pair approached the next junction after the sphinx, Cedric heard a scream in the distance. "Did you hear that?"

"Yeah," Harry replied, "it sounded like Fleur, and it didn't sound like a shout of surprise, either. I'm going to help, you in?"

"We're a team, Harry. Where you go, I go. Also, I agree that it didn't sound good." Cedric started heading down the path towards the source of the scream, Harry right on his heels, but they quickly hit a dead end.

"If she's in trouble, we need to move quickly and don't have time for this," Harry ground out. Harry took a deep breath at let it out slowly. "Step back Cedric, I got this."

Cedric quickly stepped back as Harry cast at the wall in front of him. There was a slight smoking from his wand before the entire hedge wall in front of him went up in hot flames, the fire intense enough that Cedric quickly covered his face with his arm. Thankfully, the flash fire was short lived, but the result was extraordinary: Cedric could now see numerous burnt hedges all the way to the wall of the Quidditch Stadium. He turned back to look at Harry who was looking at his wand curiously. Cedric shook himself from his shock and started running towards the scream they had heard previously, pushing a still stunned Harry along for the first few steps.

As they were running, Cedric was keeping an eye out for any hazards to the sides when he caught sight of the Triwizard Cup, sitting regally on a small, raised dais in the center of the pitch. He made sure to note its location so that they could quickly return to it after helping Fleur.

When the Hogwarts pair arrived, it was to see Fleur and Krum locked in a vicious duel. Fleur was clearly losing the fight, but had inflicted some damage on Krum. As they came up behind Krum, Fleur's eyes widened in surprise, giving Krum the opening he needed to hit Fleur with a quick _Crucio_. Fleur fell to the ground, screaming again, as Cedric sent an _Incarcerous_ at the same time Harry cast _Expelliarmus_. The combination of spells blast Krum back into the hedge wall, the ropes tangling him up in the hedge, and Harry getting ahold of his wand.

"I'll keep an eye on Krum, Harry. Go make sure that Fleur's okay," Cedric directed.

With a quick nod, Harry made his way over to where Fleur had fallen. Cedric, meanwhile, was keeping one eye on Krum and the other on the surroundings to ensure nothing snuck up on them.

"Are you alright, Fleur?" Cedric heard Harry ask quietly.

"Non. But I will be," came the soft reply. "It seems you 'ave somezing for saving Delacours, 'Arry," Fleur stated with a small chuckle. "First my sister, now me. Zank you."

Cedric could hear the embarrassment in Harry's voice, "Don't mention it. Anybody would've done the same."

"Non. Most would not," Fleur replied sadly.

"Anyway, think you can stand?" Harry questioned. Cedric imagined he must have received an affirmative answer as he heard Harry helping Fleur to her feet. "You can lean on me if you need to," Harry commented.

As the pair came up alongside Cedric, Fleur asked, "What do we do wiz 'im?"

Cedric took a moment to really look at Krum. He was jerking in his bonds, trying to get free, while fixing the three of them with a glassy-eyed stare. "I don't think Krum is completely in control of himself. I mean, I know Durmstrang's reputation, but that just didn't seem like something he would do. Look at his eyes. That glassy-eyed stare…"

"Oh!" Harry exclaimed, "I know how to deal with this. Cedric, could you help Fleur for a second?"

Fleur shifted to lean on Cedric while Harry walked up to Krum. He stood in front of Krum for a moment, just staring into the older boy's eyes. He then grabbed the sides of Krum's head, leaning forward to quickly plant a kiss on Krum's lips. When their lips connected Krum's behavior instantly changed from attempting to harm the trio to attempting to get away from Harry. As Harry drew back, Krum finally seemed to be back in control.

"Vhat vas that for?" Krum shouted as he spat at the ground.

"Welcome back, Viktor!" Harry replied happily.

Cedric looked back and forth between the two of them before looking back at Harry with a smirk on his face. "Don't you think that your girlfriend might be upset that you just made out with Krum?" He heard Krum bemoaning something about his reputation.

"Nope!" Harry responded. "Who'd you think taught me how to clear a wrackspurt infestation?"

"I vas under the Imperius, not infected by these Vrakspurts. Vhat are vrackspurts?" Krum inquired.

"Oh, you don't know about wrackspurts? Well—"

Cedric cut Harry off, "We can discuss this later. For now, what do you two say to getting out of this maze? Harry and I passed the Cup on the way here and that offer of teamwork is still open."

"I don't know. You two saved me, you should take ze Cup, not me."

"Nonsense, Fleur. The more the merrier." Cedric replied.

Harry started to add, "Yeah, come on, it will be ama—"

Cedric cut him off again, "Second warning Harry."

After a little more convincing, both of the other competitors agreed to finish as a team. Cedric freed Krum while Harry gave him back his wand, and the quartet headed toward the corridor Harry had made earlier. Upon seeing it, Harry received murmurs of appreciation from the other two. Cedric took the initiative to ask what they were all thinking, "How did you do this Harry?"

"I had some training from Seamus on fire spells before this task. That boy can light water on fire."

Fleur looked a bit confused. "I zought ze saying used _could_ not _can_."

"Da," Viktor replied, "I thought the same."

Harry stopped and looked back at the older two. "Well, normally that's true. However, in this case, somehow, and we don't actually know how, Seamus can literally set water on fire. He doesn't even need an incantation; he just waves his wand. I'd thought that some fire spells would be useful so I asked for his help. I just didn't expect it to work _this_ well," Harry stated while waving a hand toward the corridor.

The three older champions shared a look before they continued on again towards the Cup.

A couple minutes later had the group surrounding the Cup. Cedric took a second to savor the moment before starting an impromptu speech, "This competition was about building international cooperation. Us standing here, together, shows the world that we, as students, are willing to set aside our differences and work together towards a common dream." He looked around at the other champions, all were nodding their agreement. "Right then, on three."

* * *

The four competitors landed in a heap in a dark, overgrown graveyard. The group of students looked around, taking in their surroundings as they helped each other up.

The hesitant voice of Harry broke the silence, "Is this a part of the task?"

"No idea," Cedric replied nervously. Looking at the rest of the group, he queried, "Wands out, d'you reckon?" He received nods from everyone as they all pulled out their wands, getting ready for anything unexpected.

The quartet had barely taken a step forward before they saw a figure coming towards them in the darkness. From the approaching figure, they heard a high pitched voice state, "Kill the spares." This was quickly followed by an " _Avada Kedavra_."

Cedric was frozen in fear and couldn't move as he saw the green light rush towards him. From the corner of his eye, he saw Harry's eyes scrunched up in pain, from what, he couldn't imagine. As he desperately tried to move his feet, he felt the world shift beneath him as he was pulled backwards at the same time that someone was pulling Harry back. Everyone landed in a pile as Cedric felt a familiar hook grab his navel.

* * *

The quartet once again landed in a heap, this time back at Hogwarts, just outside the maze. Cedric for one was extremely grateful that they had picked up the other two competitors. Without them pulling him out of the path of that Killing Curse, he would certainly be dead.

As they were helped up by Bagman, Harry spoke up. "Well, that was certainly…," Harry paused for dramatic effect, ensuring people were looking at him, "ama—" Cedric's stunner knocked Harry unconscious before he could finish.


End file.
